Rebecca Solnit : the coup has already happened

Clear, insightful article that uses some particularly memorable biological metaphors to explain the current situation. Worth a careful read of the entire article IMHO, but here are some excerpts:

The Trump family aspires to mafia status, a thuggocracy, but they are manipulable and bumbling where Putin and company are disciplined and Machiavellian. They hire fools and egomaniacs and compromised figures—Scaramucci, Giuliani, Bannon, Flynn, Nunberg, the wifebeating Rob Porter—and then fire them, with a soap opera’s worth of drama; the competent ones quit, as have many lawyers hired to help Trump navigate his scandals. The Trumps don’t hide things well or keep their mouths shut or manage the plunder they grab successfully, and they keep committing crimes in public. Remember when Trump revealed highly classified data to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister when they visited him in the Oval Office, not long after he fired FBI director James Comey (but before he admitted it was to obstruct Comey’s investigation of his ties to Russia?). There’s a picture of that visit in which the Russians are laughing at him and he looks befuddled. Remember when Donald Jr. met with the Russian agent in Trump Tower in June of 2016 to get purloined data on Clinton and tried to cover it up by saying it was about adoptions? Remember when the Trump team was forced out of the Panama hotel that Trump still profited from, and how his lawyers appealed directly to the president of Panama? How he profits from that business and others despite the emoluments clause of the Constitution? Or the various lawsuits for violating that clause, including one pending from the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia? Or the women suing Trump for defamation? Perhaps not, as so many scandals have piled up on those ones.

. . ..
Over and over we’ve seen Trump contort his administration to serve Russia, whether he’s trying to hold back sanctions or to undermine the Paris climate treaty. The question isn’t whether we’re in a zombie horror movie starring an insane clown puppet with some very long and yankable strings, but what we’re going to do about it. Because what all those little pieces add up to, what the tangle sorts out as if you pay attention is: this is life after the coup.

After the coup, everything seems crazy, the news is overwhelming, and some try to cope by withdrawing or pretending that things are normal. Others are overwhelmed and distraught. I’m afflicted by a kind of hypervigilance of the news, a daily obsession to watch what’s going on that is partly a quest for sense in what seems so senseless. At least I’ve been able to find the patterns and understand who the key players are, but to see the logic behind the chaos brings you face to face with how deep the trouble is.

We still have an enormous capacity to resist the administration, not least by mass civil disobedience and other forms of noncooperation. Sweeping the November elections wouldn’t hurt either, if that results in candidates we hold accountable afterward. Or both. I don’t know if there’s a point at which it will be too late, though every week more regulations, administrators, and norms crash and burn—but we are long past the point at which it is too soon.

14. The message of the elimination of the cybersecurity post is troubling indeed. n/t

11. It shows a pattern where the connected dots start to make sense

So far we have been seeing what appears to be nefarious activity but with no real rhyme or reason. Now we begin to sense the larger picture.

It’s getting easier to see what is happening and how. We now know that Trump’s attacks on the media aren’t just him whining. There’s method in his madness. If he can control the media he controls everything. We all know that controlling the media is key to Totalitarian regimes if we know any history. He’s also attacked the Judiciary.

All he has to do is put his people (or Putin’s people) in the top positions. He’s already done it in the important positions of Devos as the Secretary of Education, Scott Pruitt in the Environmental Protection Agency, Ben Carson as Director of HUD, and the list goes on. All these appointments effectively work to cripple this country from within, especially when it comes to education.

All Dictators have historically found a way to control the media. Sean Hannity is already Trump’s minister of Propaganda who he seems to consult with nightly. Once Trump shuts the door to the White House press briefings all we will hear on an official level is what the administration wants us to hear. Digging for the truth will become much harder. Especially if a few journalist writers are suddenly dead.

6. YES!!! n/t

5. That sums it up so well

Trump is a reckless, in-your-face bumbling thug, whereas Putin is disciplined and Machiavellian. It is astounding that such a clown has gone so far. Prior to his run for president, I found Trump to be a bizarre and ridiculous caricature. It never dawned on me that anyone would ever take him seriously. I'm always learning something new.

7. If we acknowledge a coup has taken place, then we must be willing to use the word "treason".

This will get pushed under the rug if trump is allowed to finish out his term. The only way we can restore our standing in the world is to impeach, convict and jail the American traitors. Our allies will forgive a Russian invasion if we treat it like one. Otherwise, we will wear the stain of trump for decades to come. Who will trust us again?

18. Bush.....that was the time.

But Gore was smiling on tv and conceding and some of us were thinking well, maybe, we are being too alarmist.
That concern left me that very day they announced TSA program, and came up with "homeland Security" name.

Right then the alarms went off.

But, as the good Germans said, during Hitler's rise.." Well, there's a lot suddenly happening, one thing after another, new announcements and news, it is overwhelming, you just go from one happening to the next.
And besides, when you looked around, most people were not showing any alarm. Maybe some whispers here and there, but they soon disappeared under the events, and we were so busy going to work, family stuff, it was all just too much to take in."

10. Look, we can do what we can do

We can wring our hands but that isn't going to do anything for us. In the near term we can win in November by the greatest margin possible. So for once can we just have some discipline? Can we focus on the task at hand?

I am as distressed as anyone about #fakepresident and his crime family. I will never surrender.

21. Kicked and recommended.

23. I'm very glad to see that it's gotten some traction.

Her article really pulled all the threads together for me in a way that none of the other hundreds of articles and Talking Head TV shows have managed to do as effectively. (I mean "hundreds" literally- I've been following this story obsessively, and with ever increasing alarm, for almost 3 years now).